The Silmarillion is a gloriously realised story of rebellion, exile, war and the heroism of elves and men. For information, The Lord of the Rings concerns the end of the Third Age. The Silmarillion represents the source of Tolkien's later work and follows the events of the First Age of Middle Earth. Tolkien is best known for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings but those who thought these two wonderful adventures marked the height of his imagination have many more delights to come. Well, at least until they do the first remake.Alternate-Cover Edition for this ISBN can be found here The Hobbit trilogy and the Lord of the Rings trilogy are all we’re going to get for the foreseeable future. But it all works out fine, because PJ isn’t getting it: No The Silmarillion for us. Despite some great moments in The Hobbit, Peter Jackson’s vision of Middle Earth is very different from that in The Silmarillion. Personally, I call this good news: I’m no mega-fan of The Hobbit indeed, I thought it was pretty dreadful throughout. Not a great incentive to sell off the few film rights they still own. He’s very protective of his father’s legacy, and it doesn’t help that the Tolkien family got a little screwed on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, financially speaking. He has explicitly said that he won’t let Jackson get the rights… and won’t sell them to anyone who might sell the rights to Jackson. Those rights are still firmly in the hands of Christopher Tolkien, and he is… not fond of Jackson or his take on Middle-Earth. Jackson isn’t allowed to make a Silmarillion movie, for the simple reason that he doesn’t own the rights. Jackson could easily whip up a trilogy out of The Silmarillion. But it still has lots of stories in it that would fit into film: The tale of the Children of Hurin, or Beren and Luthien, or of the Fall of Gondolin. It’s a different kind of epic fantasy, more like a religious text than a novel. Compared to LOTR and The Hobbit, The Silmarillion feels much more… remote and alien (disclaimer: It’s one of my favorite books in the world).

The Silmarillion covers thousands of years at least (which certainly doesn’t make a movie any easier), but the meat of it is the history of the five hundred year long First Age and the war for the Silmarils, sacred jewels Morgoth stole from the Elves.

The silmarillion covers